1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a coin wrapping machine, and particularly to a coin accumulator assembly for use in the coin wrapping machine.
In the typical coin wrapping machine, coins are fed on a rotary disk and then guided to a coin guide passage one by one. While being passed through the coin guide passage, the coins are counted. The coins, after being counted, are conveyed by a conveyor belt to a coin accumulator tube through a chute. The coin accumulator tube may have a height for accommodating a predetermined number of thickest coins and means for adjusting the operational height adapted to receive a pre-set number of coins. Alternatively, a coin accumulator tube which is adapted to receive a predetermined number of coins of pre-set species or kind is selected from a group of coin accumulator tubes each being adapted to accumulate coins of individual species, and assembled in operational position. In either case, coins are stacked on a shutter plate provided at the bottom of the coin accumulator tube to form a stack of coins. After the predetermined number of coins has been accumulated in the tube, the shutter plate is opened and the stacked coins are discharged from the tube and carried by a carrier bar positioned just beneath the shutter plate to be moved to a wrapping station.
2. Prior Art
In the conventional assembly, since no means for effecting stepwise accumulation of coins is not associated in the coin accumulator tube, coins fed from the chute to the accumulator tube are allowed to fall down in the vertical direction under the action of gravitational force. During this falling movement, each coins is not always maintained horizontally but is swayed or inclined randomly. Partly by this random movement and partly by an irregular bounding action, there is a possibility for some of the coins to be stacked in disorder, for instance, any one of the coins being overlaid on the preceding coin in an inclined condition. If such a disorder occurs, the coin stack cannot be subjected to the subsequent wrapping operation and must be removed from the wrapping machine, leading to reduction in performance efficiency of the machine. Moreover, some means for detecting the occurrence of such disorder must be provided.